Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Spring is in the Air!!

As we enter the Month of April we
have completed 2 trimesters of study and April 1 is the 133rd day of school
according to Mrs. Moran’s Kindergarteners and 1st Graders!Thursday April 2 promises to be a
particularly busy day with Smarter
Balanced Testing in
Grades 3-5 in the morning, Parent
Conferences in the
afternoon and early evening and Jo
Boaler’s Math Presentation for teachers and parents at Exeter High School after that.As always we have staff members eager to
share.

Mrs. Dugan prepared the following Press Release for
the “Carriage Town News”:

Words Fill the Piggy Bank at Barnard School

At South
Hampton’s Barnard School, second and third grade students learned new
vocabulary words throughout the winter while donating money to a good cause.

During guided
reading lessons, boys and girls bookmarked unfamiliar words using sticky
notes.These words were shared and
discussed to learn meanings and generate synonyms.Then each new vocabulary word went into
student “brain banks” in exchange for a quarter for the piggy bank.

Two hundred
and thirty-four quarters (almost $60.00) filled the piggy bank on the last day
of winter, 2015.Students counted the
quarters and voted to donate them to A
Safe Place, a homeless shelter in Portsmouth, N.H., to honor South Hampton
town leader Walter Shivik who died
last December.

Unlike piggy
banks, brain banks have room for an unlimited number of new words, and so we
encourage a habit of learning new words throughout lifetimes.There may even be some actual monetary
“interest” to be earned as research suggests a correlation between adult
vocabulary size and income level.

Mrs.
Cestrone always has much to share:

“Grade K-1 is
learning about atoms, molecules and how they make up organisms. We are
reading the Dr. Seuss book, Bartholomew
and the Oobleck and we have created some green oobleck (cornstarch and
water). We will continue to talk about atoms, parts of the atom, how they
move and eventually how they make up everything.

Grade 2-3 is
finishing up their planet postcards and will be presenting them in class March
26th.

Grade 4-5 is
completing a Social Studies Unit on New Hampshire Counties.

Grade 6-7 is
completing a a chapter on Plants, (which is mostly review) and next week we
will begin Ch19 Interactions of Living things. Looking ahead we
will have a project to work on when we begin Ch20 Conserving Resources.
The students will need to create a recycled object that is functional and they
will present these projects to the class.

Grade 8 has
just completed their Mid-term exam on the Human Body and will end this Unit
with an EXCITING :) weeklong
American Bullfrog dissection. This dissection goes over each of the body
systems and organs in detail. They will be tested on this material and
they will have a detailed report due as well.”

From Mrs.
Moran:

“Students in kindergarten and grade one made leprechaun traps,
and brought them to school in an effort to catch the naughty leprechaun.
While the traps were colorful and full of sparkly treasure, the leprechaun was
too quick to be caught.

In
computer lab, first grade students have collaborated on a PowerPoint presentation about zoo animals under Mrs. Casassa's
guidance. We hope to have it available for parents to watch during
conferences next week. Also, first graders are using the iPad app, Chatterpix to create a short
presentation about Arctic animals with the help of their fourth and fifth grade
buddies.”

From
Ms. Casassa:

Grades 6-8 students have
been busy this month. 8th graders are learning about the Holocaust and just finished reading The Diary of Anne Frank. The 7th
graders have just finished The Call of
the Wild and the 6th graders finished The
Cay. In writing, the students all chose topics to write argument
essays and letters on. The topics range from the merits of chewing gum in
school, the need to for more recess and later school start times to why girls
are out performing boys in school and whether we should fund the preservation
of open space. Students learned how to create surveys using Google Forms to gather data in the school,
which they could use to support their claims.

In tech classes, students in grades first through fifth have
learned how to use Google presentation. The first graders created a
presentation about their virtual visit to the San Diego Zoo, while the second and third graders are presenting
their research on the fifty states. All students are being introduced to
basic coding through games on Code
Studio and Stitch. The younger students learned how to put together a code
to make Ellysa from Frozen skate in a square. Visit the Barnard Technology web page to see all
the wonderful things they have been doing. Ask your student; they know
how to get there!

Teachers and
classes in Grades 3-8 have been in the process of preparing to take and
administer the newly established Smarter
Balanced Assessments, and we have reviewed the requirements for our
computer systems and everything is all set to go.Teachers, paraprofessionals, and
administrators have trained and certified in test administration for this
computer-adaptive assessment and we are confident that our students will do
their best to “show what they know!”

As
the school year comes to an end, the staff will be meeting to reflect on
2014-2015 and the changes we have gone through together.We will be reviewing the schedule, our
offerings, and the Family Handbook as we work together to prepare for next year
and beyond.As we go through this
process we will involve parents, the Board, and SAU administration, and we will
be looking for whatever input, insights, and guidance that stakeholders can
provide.

That is
another amazing snapshot of life here at Barnard School.As I have reported earlier we continue to look
forward to field trips to Mounts Major
and Monadnock and Mrs. “D” and I flying to D.C. with the 8th
grade. Due to the generosity of our PTA, we are looking forward to a
presentation from Odds Bodkin, famed performer and storyteller at 12:15 on Friday
April 10, and parents are invited.Our Celebration
of Learning has been rescheduled to May 12 with all day and evening
performances from songwriter Steve
Blunt, also thanks to PTA.I’m getting in shape for the annual PTABlaze the Trail 5K, recently
rescheduled for May 30!Please continue
to visit our website with links to incredible teacher classroom sites and the
Principal’s Page link.Thank you all for
your continued friendship and support.